willow pattern

American  

noun

1. a decorative design in English ceramics, depicting chiefly a willow tree, small bridge, and two birds, derived from Chinese sources and introduced in approximately 1780: often executed in blue and white but sometimes in red and white.

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willow pattern British  

noun

1. 1. a pattern incorporating a willow tree, river, bridge, and figures, typically in blue on a white ground, used on pottery and porcelain

   2. ( as modifier )

      a willow-pattern plate

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Etymology

Origin of willow pattern

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

willow pattern

Here are graceful household vessels, compared with the art of which the willow pattern of the nineteenth century is a barbarism, and fabrics of which modern Manchester would not be ashamed.

From How to See the British Museum in Four Visits by W. Blanchard Jerrold

The table is set with the old-fashioned willow pattern china, quaint Sheffield silver and is unmarked by any of the small dishes of sweets that fill breakfast tables.

From Breakfasts and Teas Novel Suggestions for Social Occasions by Paul Pierce

Now it is with no intention of directing the public eye to the "willow pattern," that I have alluded to this circumstance.

From Nuts and Nutcrackers by Charles James Lever

The dresser was covered with crockery and pipkins, willow pattern plates, and tea-cups and mugs.

From The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter

To Sigismond Septimus Snobb, the large willow pattern plate, for the best model of a national water-butt, to be erected in the Teetotalers’ Hall of Temperance in the Water-loo Road.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, December 18, 1841 by Various